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Topic: new uranium glass (Read 1824 times)

There are still vaseline glass beads coming out of the Czech republic (or they have a HUGE backlog of inventory). They could also make the buttons by melting down cullet (scrap) fairly easily. I had not heard of a ban in the EU about using uranium oxide as a colorant. That is news to me if it is true.

I have been quiet on this board for about 2 months, due to moving. I am now relocated and have the computer set up again, so will check in regularly when I have something to offer.

In recent weeks our 'anna-green' sensors have been going crazy. And our provisional conclusion is that we are seeing a 'flood' of new 'uranium green items turning up in the 'antique' trade here. It's difficult to prove cos we haven't found a modern mark on any of them yet, but they seem to have a distinctive and different colour ( a little darker and deeper than most genuine examples). Our suspicions are also aroused when we find easily damaged 'plastiques' (i.e. sculptural items) which are in suspiciously good condition.The designs are similar but not identical to popular VSL posy vases, Walther centrepieces, and Brockwitz (-attributed) patterns and good enough to fool many a passer-by..We have found such 'art-deco' items in rose-pink which bear modern Czech lazer-sandblasted marks, and suspect that these are now generally being offered through the antique trade here (most are unmarked). To date no single seller has declared their item as modern, even if we can show them a modern factory mark on the base, they want to argue!It still seems a bit odd that a vase which will sell for 10 euros if it's correct/period, is worth the effort of 'faking'!

It is not a question of faking - just the continued production of popular product designs. If a book list "Classic Czech Perfume designed 1932 and still in production.", you can be certain that it will be offered on a stall as Czech 1932. Most price tickets are quite small and it would be very hard for a dealer, particularly with cold fingers in the morning air behind his stall, to write a lenghty description and still leave room for the price. Of course in some cases, the books also economise on ink and only leave the design date - it is only human nature to suffer myopia in such cases. Older is better than new!

The same phenomenon happens here on the GMB when literacy challenged dealers are told that their treasure appears in a 1906 catalogue, the explanation might then continue at length with why only a limited production was produced at that time with the mould being rediscover 90 years later and production restarted. On eBay it becomes 1906. The dealers was looking for the answer to 3 questions Who, When, What is it worth, they have no time for more.

This begs the question is older better than new? Not always, sometimes the quality of materials used is better in modern times. But also it should be the aesthetic of the design that is valued, a hypothetical date of production is largely irrelevant in that respect. It might be that particular colours were not produced beyond a certain date, or introduced at a specific date. The collector as opposed to investor is often valueing these minor details more than the actual age. Items that are in production for decades are no longer uncommon, perhaps collecting ideals that grew in an age of more handmade goods are themselves in need of change. But while collectors are treating the modern production, perhaps even continuous production, of classic designs with disdain then the dealers will certainly cater to those whims. Only the specialist dealer will have sufficient knowledge to sort his stock of pressed pink "Pandora's box" into its 8 decades of production. The general dealer will ever stick to 1927 as that is what it says in 'The Book'

Experience teaches that anyone who begins to collect in any field can feel a change in his soul. He becomes a joyful man filled with a deeper empathy, and a more open understanding of worldly things moves his soul. (Alfred Lichtwark 1852 – 1914)